Negative partisanship is the tendency of some voters to form their political opinions primarily in opposition to

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

they dislike. Whereas traditional

partisanship A partisan is a committed member or supporter of a political party or political movement. In multi-party systems, the term is used for persons who strongly support their party's policies and are reluctant to compromise with political opponents ...

involves supporting the policy positions of one's own party, its negative counterpart in turn means opposing those positions of a disliked party. It has been claimed to be the cause of severe polarization in

American politics In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal republic, federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches Separation of powers, share powers: United States Congress, C ...

. It has also been studied in the Canadian context, as well as in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Cross-national studies indicate that negative partisanship undermines public satisfaction with democracy, which threatens democratic stability. Traditional partisans, on the other hand, are more likely to support their country's democracy, which promotes democratic stability.

United States

Alan Abramowitz, a professor of

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

, likens negative partisanship to a

sports rivalry A sports rivalry is intense competition between athletic teams or athletes, affecting participants, management, and supporters all to varying degrees. One of the first known sports rivalries occurred in the Roman Empire between the Blues and the ...

, where members of one side may have internal disagreements but are motivated to a far greater extent by hatred of the other side. According to his research, negative feelings towards the opposing political party have risen above positive towards one's own political party since the 1980s, along with the increase in straight-ticket voting. The phenomenon of negative partisanship was further exacerbated during the 2016 election, in which both major candidates,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

, received record low "feeling thermometer" ratings in a

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...

study. Rachel Bitecofer expands on Abramowitz's ideas, advocating a theory under which elections are fundamentally driven by

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

instead of

swing vote A swing vote is a vote that is seen as potentially going to any one of a number of candidates in an election, or, in a two-party system, may go to either of the two dominant political parties. It usually comes from voters who are 'undecided' or ...

rs as traditionally believed. In this framework, it is more important to turn out the base than appeal to ideological

moderate Moderate is an ideological category which entails centrist views on a liberal-conservative spectrum. It may also designate a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. Political position Canad ...

s. However, some like David Wasserman of ''

The Cook Political Report Amy Elizabeth Walter (born October 19, 1969)"Profile: Amy Walter"
Obama-Trump voters, or Americans who voted for

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

in 2008 and/or 2012 and

in 2016.

The rise of negative partisanship

In today's society, partisanship in the United States has been transformed by two different trends. First, partisanship and ideological identity have become closely aligned. Democrats are overwhelmingly liberal, and Republicans are overwhelmingly conservative. This specific alignment strengthens the bonds between partisans and their political parties. The second trend that has transformed partisanship is the rise of negative partisanship. The American National Election Studies collected data for a feeling-thermometer scale to study the feelings of the people towards the parties. For the Democratic Party, the average rating went from 59 to 49 degrees from 2000 to 2016. On the other hand, there was a drop from 54 to 43 degrees from 2000 to 2016 for the Republican Party. Since the American National Election Studies created the feeling-thermometer scale in 1968, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been the most unpopular major-party candidates. Even more so voters hate the opposing party candidate even more, which has led to an increase of negative partisanship in recent years.

The racial divide

The racial divide in the United States has been the most significant factor that has influenced the rise of negative partisanship. Negative political campaigns, partisan media, and diverse cultural issues have heightened tensions. The most significant factor to negative partisanship is racial alignment which occurred in the beginning of the 1970s. During this time, Republican candidates would send out racially tinged messages in order to gain support from racially conservative White voters. This transformed the Republican Party into predominately white, while the Democratic Party was growing more diverse. This realignment was influenced by demographic changes and large-scale immigration. These things caused an increase in racial resentment among the White Republican voters which created the racial divide between the two parties. Peoples racial attitudes have been significant on how voters view parties and candidates. We can see in recent years that White voters with high levels of racial resentment align with the Republican Party, while racially liberal White and non-white voters usually vote democratic. This division have increased negative feelings towards the parties in modern day politics.

The impact of the media

The advancement of technology and the media has strongly influenced negative partisanship. The rise of tv, radio, and internet news outlets has created a fragmented and polarized media landscape. This has enabled individuals to choose to watch ideologically aligned news sources that often depict the opposing party in a negative manner. For example, Republicans are often to watch Fox News, while Democrats can be seen watching CNN. Studies have shown that exposure to partisan media has a huge impact on voting behaviors. As these partisan media outlets continue to grow, they continue to create a divide between Democrats and Republicans which will increase negative partisanship.

The influence of personalities

Even personality traits have an influence on negative partisanship. Utilizing the Big Five personality framework (Openness to New Experiences, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability), scholars have made a connection between certain traits and the impact that they have on partisanship. The American National Election Studies revealed that higher levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability are less likely to be negative partisans. People who are naturally friendly are less likely to have negativity towards the opposing party. Extraverts that are socially active have been shown to also be less likely to show negativity towards the other party due to the fact that they understand others. On the other hand, those who have lower levels of agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability are more likely to be negative partisans. Our personality traits can play in a role in our feelings towards the opposing party.

In other countries

In a comparative study of elections in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, researchers from the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

examined the relationship between

group identity Collective identity or group identity is a shared sense of belonging to a group. This concept appears within a few social science fields. National identity is a simple example, though myriad groups exist which share a sense of identity. Like ma ...

political ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

, positive party identification, negative party identification, and vote choice. Under the traditional

left–right political spectrum The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and political parties, parties, with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to positions on the left and on ...

, negative partisanship is not an independent factor distinct from positive partisan identity, with psychologists John T. Cacioppo and Gary Berntson placing positive and negative attitudes on a single bipolar continuum. However, more recent scholarship has found that positive and negative identity are not merely opposites. According to Henri Tajfel, members of a group must first gain a positive sense of identity before they can associate negative feelings with an outgroup. But once negative feelings are established, they may produce a stronger reaction in the brain due to negativity bias. The Montréal researchers concluded that group identities are acquired early in life, and combine with ideology to determine positive party identification, but not negative party identification except in New Zealand. Under a

logistic regression In statistics, a logistic model (or logit model) is a statistical model that models the logit, log-odds of an event as a linear function (calculus), linear combination of one or more independent variables. In regression analysis, logistic regres ...

model with party identification and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

independent variable A variable is considered dependent if it depends on (or is hypothesized to depend on) an independent variable. Dependent variables are studied under the supposition or demand that they depend, by some law or rule (e.g., by a mathematical function ...

s and vote choice as the

dependent variable A variable is considered dependent if it depends on (or is hypothesized to depend on) an independent variable. Dependent variables are studied under the supposition or demand that they depend, by some law or rule (e.g., by a mathematical functio ...

, both forms of party identification have a

statistically significant In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when a result at least as "extreme" would be very infrequent if the null hypothesis were true. More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the ...

impact on vote choice, while education is a significant determinant of vote choice for both parties only in the United States.

References

{{Reflist Political parties Political terminology Theories of political behavior